


You Ain't No Spy

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Holly's Round Seven H/C Bingo Card [2]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Gen, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 23:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7382410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Colby Granger never meant to deal in death and deceit, and yet here he is, staring death in the face for a life he didn't choose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Ain't No Spy

"Mike Kirkland says differently."

It's the most damning thing that he could have said, and it sets Colby's heart going a mile a minute in his chest.

Dwayne's talking and his handler's talking and Colby knows he needs to be paying more attention-- _is_ paying attention, on some level--but the rest of him is quickly, quietly going into full acute stress response. He fights to keep his breathing level, to keep his heart rate down, but the rest of him knows that there's so much more at stake if he doesn't hold out.

As his captor sticks the first needle into his arm, Colby can feel his whole body light up with fear and nerves. He's going to die here. He's going to die here and there's not a damn thing he can do about it.

The least he can do, though, is hang on. He made a deal with Dwayne, made a deal with Kirkland, and now he'll make a deal with whatever deity is looking down on him, that's kept him alive and afloat to this point, and he'll do just about anything to stay alive.

Just about anything. Because even as the world starts to close in on him, he won't betray his country.

Strangely, it's David's words that echo in his ears as he fights to breathe through the constriction in his chest. _You ain't no spy_ , David had said, screamed those words to his face. _You ain't no spy_ and Colby isn't a spy, he's protecting his country the only way he knows how. Putting his body on the line to keep people safe. People he loves, people that used to love him, people that are never going to know what became of him when he dies here.

He doesn't succumb to the urge to clench his eyes shut and fight back the need to break, but it's a very near thing.

But he does start to hallucinate once the second drug hits his bloodstream. It's altogether too easy to be back under the Humvee, waiting for his life to expire, and to feel himself being pulled to safety. To remember being indebted to Dwayne in a way that he'd thought he could live with until suddenly he couldn't. To think that he'd bargain with anyone, give anything to be free of that shackle.

It's altogether too easy to be back in Kirkland's office, caught between his country and a fellow countryman and knowing all too well which one he was going to choose. To remember being so certain that Kirkland would keep him safe if he made this deal, if he played along. To being proven so spectacularly wrong just a few minutes ago.

And yet, for every deal he's made, it's the one that landed him here, on a boat almost two dozen miles offshore (More? Less? He can't be sure.) with his life and wellbeing in the hands of a maniac. And for all that his faith is tarnished and tainted, Colby Granger believes in one thing--that he will be saved, even if that salvation comes in death. So long as he does not stray, he will be saved.

He just wishes he'd had more time. Because he is going to die here, that much is certain. Every deal that he has wrought up to this point has landed him here, and here he will remain barring an intervention that he knows isn't coming. So instead of hoping, he just stares the man that will act as his judge and jury in the face, defiant to the very end.

If this is to be his end, he will not go down making one last deal with a demon.

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my second bingo for Round Seven of H/C Bingo, with a drive-by beta from the always lovely [Tina](http://idoltina.tumblr.com/).
> 
>  
> 
> [Come hang out with me on tumblr!!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


End file.
